Ahead of their times: Steel industry projects FutureSteelVehicle, ULSAB-AVC, ULSAB and ULSAC demonstrated advanced steel applications for lightweight, safe, affordable and environmentally sound automotive structures. Their engineering reports are still being downloaded today by engineers worldwide–there’s still so much to be gleaned from the steel and steel technologies demonstrated by these projects. |
 FSV’s BEV Body Structure Variant |
 ULSAB-AVC C-Class, light weight with sleek load paths for crash safety |
 ULSAB shaved 25% of a sedan body structure |
 ULSAC offered closure designs that are up to 32% lighter, at affordable costs |
GN Focus, a gulfnews.com feature, published an article on AHSS trends after they interviewed our director, Cees ten Broek, a while back. We bumped into it again recently during a Google search engine result and found it still very pertinent to today’s automotive market and worth revisiting. Have a read:
“The need for safer and economical vehicles has compelled automakers such as Honda, BMW and Ford among others to invest in high-strength steel.
“Since about 60 per cent of every vehicle is made of steel, automakers and steel producers across the world have been investing in research and development (R&D) and engineering studies to invent new and advanced steel products. Though carmakers have been using steel for many years, the major emphasis in the past couple of decades has been on improving its quality, strength, lightness and formability.
“Something that has caught the fancy of automakers is Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS), an innovative lightweight, but high-strength steel material. Since AHSS are stronger than conventional steel, they help automakers meet safety, efficiency, emissions and formability requirements at a low cost.” more >>> (on gulfnews.com)